Street photography thrives in London today. It documents the movement, diversity and seeming incoherence of the most multicultural city in the world. Its defining characteristic is the keen eye of the photographer catching the moment of a chance encounter, a fleeting expression or a momentary juxtaposition in a decisive click. However, photographing life on London's streets is nothing new. The first 'instantaneous' London street scenes were taken in the early 1860s, and by the 1890s candid street photographers were snapping Londoners unawares. The 20th century saw many photographers, famous and lesser-known, continue to capture the daily life of London. London Street Photography showcases the Museum of London's unique historic collection of photographs. It contains the work of more than seventy photographers and is a fascinating view of London street life of the last 150 years. It includes the work of well-known photographers such as Paul Martin, John Thomson, Humphrey Spender, Bert Hardy, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Roger Mayne and Tony Ray-Jones as well as the work of many anonymous photographers whose contribution has been just as important in recording the story of the city. The book includes an introduction by Mike Seaborne, Senior Curator of Photographs at the Museum, in which he outlines the history of street photography in the Capital, exploring the shifts in approach as well as the impact of new cameras that could allow photographers to capture the wealth of detail to be found in London's teeeming streets. 'London Street Photography' was first published in association with The Museum of London to coincide with a major exhibition at the Museum.

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This book is fascinating to see old photographs as early as 1860. I bought this book to see if I could learn more about what makes an interesting shot in street photography and I think its done that. I looked through the whole book in a day and couldn't wait to get out on the streets and shoot. Even if your not interested in photography its a wonderful book to see what it was like back than.

As indicated in the title, this book covers 150 years of street photography in London, almost from the beginning of the art. There is not a continuous flow in time and there are sometimes rather longer gaps than I would have preferred but you cannot include in any retrospective collection that which does not exist or is unknown. The book reflects an exhibition held in the Museum of London in 2011 and is published by the exhibition's curators. I don't know how the collection was chosen but I do know that most of the photographs come from the museum's archives and may likely have been donated.

To the early photographers, taking a photograph in the street was a major and complex task and the Victorians were fascinated by it. The technologies and cameras used were crude and, until Kodak, most photographers would have needed to prepare their own plates and process them, unless they were able to afford an assistant. Photography was mainly a rich person's hobby the cameras were large and cumbersome and required the use of a tripod. The technologies were sometimes extremely hazardous, either in the preparation of the plates which had to be prepared and used almost immediately and which would have required a portable darkroom to be available on-site or in the processing after exposure. One process required a large volume of liquid mercury to be heated beneath the exposed plate, and no-one today would be quite so adventurous with something that dangerous.

The early cameras were relatively simple and did not initially need a shutter; to expose, the photographer uncapped the lens for whatever period of time he guessed to be needed, and it could amount to many seconds. In some of the earlier photos, you can see ghosted images where someone has stopped for a moment or two before moving on. Later, when technology improved and film rating systems employed during production only then did exposure times reduce and a means of controlling exposure times then down to a larger fraction of a second could be used. By the 1880s-1890s, photography was cheap enough to be affordable by the middle classes and the slightly wealthier working class. The photographers represented in this collection are, in the main, unrecognisable names rather than the Cartier-Bressons of their time.

The photographs evidence several different technologies up to and probably including digital; it is not the technologies that matter but the images. Most are fascinating in that they reflect the fashions and transport of their day. It is interesting to see well-known locations in a previously unknown way, empty streets, horse-drawn vehicles, and even animal fairs of which there still a few remaining up to the early 20th century but the increase in traffic forced them to close or move.

Of necessity, very few of the images are in colour and that is very appropriate. However, the use of colour is not a very modern technology but was available in an early form from the mid-1920s and it might have been interesting to include one or two of those vintage technologies. I know of one relatively famous collection shot using the Dufay process where photographers were sent around the world just to take photographs; several were shot in and around London.

It is easy to suggest that images could have been added, but an exhibition is of necessity limited to the amount of display space available. Some of the earlier photographs may well have been the actual exposed plate from the camera and therefore perhaps no larger than a few square inches. Others may have been enlarged from a negative and therefore be much larger, but they all require their own space. The representative images included are quite varied and for that the curators must be congratulated.

I recieved this book at christmas and I love it. The whole idea of street photography is demonstrated in this book. The idea that photos of normal life may not interesting for many years, but once the years have passed they take on a different interest for the viewer. Seeing a whole London street of carts and horses would of been normal to the photographer. Those photos now look facinating because streets aren't filled with carts and horses.I have liked street photography before but this year I have tried to compile my own images of 2014 of people and places. I may not get there but hopefully I can take photos that will be as interesting as the ones included in this book.

Amazing Book of beautiful Monochrome/Black and White Photography - I am doing my advanced Ultimate Photography Diploma at present and this really gives inspiration that I have not seen in many books on the subject .

Maybe I had the wrong impression of what this would be - I was quite disappointed with the contents. The contents of some 'local books' that I have seen have been better than this one... local books that tell a story of an area with local photos.

It would have been useful to have included a paragraph or two to explain the photo, or the history of the photo, rather than just a title.

If you are interested in a historic impression of 'street photography' then you will too be disappointed with this book.

I went to this exhibition at the Museum of London and loved it. The book was quite expensive and could not afford it on the day so was very glad to find it on Amazon. Absolutely fantastic photos which I look at over and over again. I would recommend this book to anyone either with a love of London or photography.